Haha I guessed I asked for that. Of all our mainline locos, only the 47 GE U-26C's came with F on the frontend, some guy's said it meant freight, haha. It was soon was apparent that those smokepots were only designed by someone who never, ever drove one. The intakes for the central airblower were on the roof behind the DB's and the cab ventilation/heater blew filthy black exhaust inside when running longhood first. Didn't take long for the union to ban that practice.

But I digress....

As to the Battery-Electric Motor's, I have only followed Metal mines and seen mostly the Motorman pulling or pushing loads/mtys coupled at the B/Box end and I guess that was to give the operator a margin of safety taking away the chance of an over-ride. The early Mancha didn't have the flat "seat" anti-climber plate; that came later. So my calling the Battery-Box end as the front is probably wrong.

Those historic pictures show a gong and a headlight casting opposite end from the operator. The way the guard is fitted to the light interests me and I had wondered what the relic had on it. The Mancha I am recreating, had some butt-ugly heavy-duty, galvanised screenmesh over both end lights and I really don't want same. I have yet to see a Gong on any metalmine trammer. Surely there was a warning device of sorts?

Chrisin New Zealand

_________________Alive and Well....for now

Last edited by Kiwi#1 on Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

A bit more on the issue of which end is the front.......I've looked at photos of 3 Mancha controllers and they all have cast raised letters FORWARD OFF REVERSE around the handle. On each the handle when rotated to FORWARD moved the trammer batterybox first.

Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pmPosts: 6906Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field

looks like we may have this locomotive narrowed down. today i was able to get a data plate off of one of the traction motors. it was completely unreadable. after 15 minutes of careful cleaning with scotch brite and isopropyl alcohol i was able to make out the motor model no., s/n, voltage, and a few other things. with this info, a friend of ours with GE records was able to trace this to a locomotive model no. LSB2C6C2. L= Locomotive SB= Storage Battery 2C= two traction motors/2axles 6= 6tons C2= Form C2 (styling/design specifications). the one in the anthracite museum is a form c5 which would explain the different style suspension. we dont have it narrowed to specific locomotive just yet, but it was one of 18 or so delivered to the hudson coal co between 1920-21. pretty neat to be able to track that down, and the fact that its almost 100 years old!!!

That's a great looking machine. What gauge does it run on? Or, have I missed that detail in the forgoing posts?

The discussion about which end is the front continues over here too. With my Greensburg I assumed that the battery end ran first. But, then I realised that the driver would need to be at the very front. So, I changed my mind and decided that the cab is the front of a battery locomotive. At the Steeple Grange Light Railway we run a few battery locomotives. We run those with the cabs forward.

When I get a few moments I'll post a few pictures of our locomotive fleet (daughters birthday today so time is tight).

anymore im just thinking they're ambidextrous...... Theres no difference in the speed or power of the motor in either direction, and depending on the job they are run in either direction. I don't really know that there ever was a front or back on batt locos. I have both seen them run and run them both ways, and as far as im concerned the advantages of batt. box front are that 1.) it shields the wind (obv. not the intended purpose, but damn nice on a 15 degree day in the intake!) and 2.) its easy to hook onto and release cars without getting off the motor. the advantage, on the other hand, of motorman front is theres less chance of getting smashed between the motor and the cars in a major derailment......which is a decent concern for sure...

Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pmPosts: 6906Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field

thats a long story. that thing he is selling is a gasoline powered whitcomb 2 ft gauge locomotive. i have a photo of it somewhere. this guy originally had this ge motor we bought. told him if he ever wanted to sell it to call me. he sold it to a scrapper instead. then we bought it off the scrapper. he also called this thing a 10 ton motor when its really 6, and that whitcomb he has listed is small too. the cars are big flat cars he built to haul people around the woods on the railroad he built. shady guy.

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